


Flippin' pancakes

by makerofaqueen



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Childhood Friends, Enemies to Lovers, First Kiss, Implied/Referenced Abuse, M/M, Punk!Percy - Freeform, jercy - Freeform, jock!jason
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 09:37:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14078034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makerofaqueen/pseuds/makerofaqueen
Summary: Jason has started noticing that his childhood friend is hot as all hell nowadays, but they've drifted apart during the years. How do you make contact with someone who scowls when hey look at you? You're persistent, that's how.





	Flippin' pancakes

**Author's Note:**

> This one is for delta who's done what no ficwriter has managed so far: turning me into a jercy shipper.

Jason parked his car in the high school parking lot and gathered his books. He was _so_ late for class. He was _never_ late for class, not once had he missed it in his almost four years of high school. Jason prided himself in having straight A’s and being best in the track team all at once.

He ran through the empty corridors, skidded around a corner and crashed into something that shouldn’t have been there. Jason landed on his butt on the stone floor, books and notes littered around him. Someone was sitting opposite him, equally dazed.

‘Watch where the fuck you’re going,’ the other person growled.

‘Sorry, sorry, I didn’t see you…’ as he said that, Jason realized he couldn’t see anything, so he started feeling around for his glasses. They had landed a few inches from his butt. When he put them on, he froze.

Percy Jackson was sitting across from him, rubbing his right eye. He was already going blue where Jason had crashed into him, no doubt hitting him with an elbow or something. The door to his locker was open. If Percy was crouching to get something from it, then his eye would be in the exact right height for Jason to elbow him in it.

‘You should be in class,’ was all Jason thought to say.

Percy narrowed his eyes at him.

‘So should you.’

‘I’m late. I was obviously running,’ Jason said. He got up on his knees and started gathering his books. ‘Sorry I bumped into you. I have to go.’ He was blabbering now. Percy was a creepy kid. He never spoke during classes and more than once Jason had seen him with what looked like cuts and bruises from fighting. He had tattoos on his arms, at the moment they were peeking out from under his hoodie, on his wrists. His head was shaved on one side and he had a piercing in the bottom lip. Jason found himself staring at said piercing now.

‘I have to go,’ Percy said, and slipped out the door. Jason stood up, staring at the door Percy had disappeared through. That was weird, because as much of a punk as Percy was, he never missed class. Not that Jason had noticed that. No, that would have been weird.

 

\------------------------

 

It wasn’t until he got home from school that day and unpacked his school bag that Jason realized he had gotten one of Percy’s books with him from their collision. This particular subject they had homework in that was due tomorrow so Jason figured he really needed his book.

He knew where Percy lived of course. They had been in the same class since they were in daycare, nothing more than toddlers, really. There was even a time, long ago, but still, that Percy had been coming to Jason’s birthday parties. That was when they were young enough to invite everybody in class. As they grew older, they had drifted in different directions and it was only recently that Jason had started to notice Percy again but he wasn’t going to read anything into that. Nope.

Jason got in his car and drove to Percy’s old neighborhood. He parked the car on the road and looked at Percy’s house. There were people in the kitchen, and Jason was watching them from his car through the window. Totally not in a creepy way or anything, he was simply curious.

In the kitchen of the tiny, run down house, Percy was flipping pancakes with a toddler perched on his hip. A younger boy was doing his homework at the table. There was no car in the drive way, so no doubt his parents weren’t home. Jason was fiddling with the book that had Percy’s name on the cover. He needed it, Jason knew that. No doubt he hadn’t noticed it was gone from his bag, but he had to do the homework for tomorrow, wasn’t he? Jason sighed and got out of his car. He walked up to the door and rang the bell. There was shouting heard from within and the young boy who had been sitting at the table opened it. He looked up at Jason with big, round eyes and a gap between his front teeth.

‘Hi, I’m a friend of your brother. Can I come in?’

‘I’m Tyson.’

‘Hi, Tyson. My name is Jason. Your brother forgot this book at school and I thought he might want it.’

‘Sure, come in.’

Tyson led him to the kitchen and said off handedly before he went back to his homework:

‘Your boyfriend is here.’

Percy snapped his head around so quickly that Jason thought his neck would break in two, then he scowled slightly at Jason. His eye was blue and swollen around the edges.

‘He’s not my boyfriend.’

‘He said so,’ Tyson defended himself.

‘I said friend,’ Jason said.

‘You’re hardly that, either,’ Percy muttered. ‘Why are you here, Jason?’

‘Because I accidentally got one of your books with me today when we… crashed into each other.’

‘You mean when you elbowed me in the eye?’

‘Yeah… Sorry, again.’

Jason offered Percy the book but the other boy just scowled at him.

‘Which hand do you suggest I take that with? Just put it on the counter. Which one is that, by the way?’

He flipped the pancake around and then hoisted the toddler higher up on his hip. She grabbed a handful of his hair and tugged it while blabbering something.

‘Yeah, sweetie, I’m working on it,’ he said.

‘It’s biology.’

‘You could’ve kept that until tomorrow,’ Percy said.

‘But we’ve got homework,’ Jason exclaimed.

‘Do I look like I’ve got time for homework tonight? I did that days ago,’ Percy said, facing the stove.

‘Where’re your parents?’

‘Mom’s working. We haven’t seen this little one’s dad in weeks,’ Percy said quietly. He swore when he burned one of the pancakes. Jason shooed him away from the stove.

‘Set the table and make your sister ready for dinner. I’ll fry up the rest of these,’ Jason said and rolled the sleeves of his shirt up.

‘You can fry pancakes?’ Percy asked him.

‘It’s hardly rocket science, Jackson,’ Jason said while he made the first one. ‘Do you want my help or not?’

Percy rolled his eyes and went to get a chair he put the toddler in, then he set the table. By the time he was done and everybody had their hands washed Jason was done with the pancakes. Just when Percy started cutting the first one for his sister the door opened and his mother came inside. She smiled at the ready made dinner, then she noticed Jason.

‘Hello, I’m Sally.’

‘Jason Grace.’

‘Nice to meet you, Jason. Do you want some pancakes?’

‘Actually, I’ve got to go. I think my parents are wondering where I went to. I only told them I was dropping off a book.’

Percy looked at the time.

‘Shit, so do I.’

‘I know, honey, I’m sorry I was late.’

‘No problem, mom,’ he said and kissed her on the cheek. ‘I’ll be back later tonight. Save me some pancakes, will you?’

He grabbed the book from the counter and took it with him to his room. When he came out again he had a convenient store shirt with a nametag on. Jason felt weird, he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to leave or not, but when Percy did he felt okay with going, too.

‘Nice to meet you Mrs. Jackson,’ he called as the door closed. Outside, Percy grabbed his long board and stepped on. Jason eyed him.

‘I assume you’re going to work,’ he said. Percy nodded. ‘Without dinner?’ Jason continued.

‘I’ll have a cigarette on the way,’ Percy said offhandedly.

‘That’s not dinner,’ Jason chided.

‘Whatever. Did it look like I had time for dinner?’

Jason looked away.

‘Not really, no. I could drive you, if you want.’

Percy eyed him, seemingly sizing him up, finally he relaxed.

‘Yeah, alright,’ he said and grabbed his longboard before they went to Jason’s car. When Jason raised his eyebrows at the board Percy stashed in the backseat he shrugged and said:

‘Well, I have to get home, don’t I?’

Jason nodded. That sounded fair. Jason couldn’t exactly hang around until Percy got off his shift. He needed to get home to do his own homework.

 

\----------------------------

 

They were twenty minutes early for Percy’s shift, which meant he had time to grab a snack on the way before he started and didn’t have to work on an empty stomach. Jason passed a McDonalds and Percy had three cheeseburgers in three bites before they stopped on the parking lot outside of Percy’s workplace. It was one of the smaller convenient stores that were littered around town.

‘Thanks for the ride, and the book, and the pancakes,’ Percy said without looking at Jason.

‘You’re welcome.’

‘I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, or whatever, he said and climbed out of the car. Jason watched him while he entered the low building through a side door. Then he sighed and rested his head against the steering wheel for a moment before he put the car into gear and left.

 

\------------------------------

 

The day after, in school, there was a note inside Jason’s locker. He looked around, but no one was watching him. He opened it and read it:

_“I don’t want you to think I was being ungrateful yesterday. I know I can come off as cold, but what you did was really nice and I was kind of embarrassed about it. That’s why I behaved the way I did. Thank you. /P”_

Jason scribbled down an answer on another little piece and slipped it inside Percy’s locker when he passed it. The black haired boy was nowhere to be seen.

 

_“No worries, we’re cool. Say hi to your mom for me, will you? /J”_

When the school day was over, Jason had an answer in his locker.

 

_“I will. /P”_

 

\-----------------------------

 

The next time Jason had classes with Percy was a couple of days later, in gym class. They were in the locker room before the class. He wasn’t wearing anything other than his boxers and Jason had to suppress a shudder. He hadn’t realized Percy had become such a gorgeous piece of young man. Tattoos covered his entire arms and shoulders, no doubt peeking up from under the neck lining whenever he wore a tank top. His abs was toned and his build was lithe. If Jason hadn’t already been pretty fucking sure he was into boys, this would have been his epiphany.

Percy turned around and noticed Jason staring. He frowned and Jason turned around, blushing, hurrying in to the gym. He needed to cool himself down. When the fuck had Percy Jackson become hot? Jason could remember Percy from daycare, the chubby little toddler with the sea-green eyes and black hair. They had been friends, Jason remembered, until they got older and started drifting apart.

Once Jason started noticing Percy again, in high school, things were different. Percy was a… for lack of a better word, a punk, and Jason was… not. Jason Grace was all straight A’s and track team and being home well in time before curfew. He suspected Percy was none of those things. Maybe that’s what was so intriguing about him. They had developed into two different directions but Jason still kind of wanted to be Percy’s friend, especially after his visit to his house the other night, he just didn’t know how. How do you make friends with someone who scowls when they see you?

 

\---------------------------

 

That Friday night, Jason found himself ditching his jock friend’s party and driving his car to Percy’s workplace. He hadn’t been able to enjoy himself anyway and on the way home he passed by the little convenient store. Jason almost, almost didn’t stop but something told him he should see Percy again. He wanted to, he just didn’t want to admit that to himself.

Percy was sitting behind the desk, flipping through a text book and taking notes. Jason recognized it as the English homework they had to turn in Wednesday. Percy didn’t even look up when the little bell announced Jason entering, which Jason found highly unprofessional. He grabbed a coke and some burritos from the stand before he went up to the desk. Percy finally put down his textbook and looked up. He frowned at Jason.

‘This isn’t your neighborhood, Grace. Are you stalking me?’

‘You wish,’ Jason said. ‘I was on my way home from a party and wanted snacks. This is on the way.’

Percy checked him out and bagged his items, then he said:

‘What was wrong with the party? No cute girls?’

Jason didn’t know what to answer to that.

‘I…’

‘Whatever, of course there were. Cheerleading squad and whatnot. Suppose they’re cute in their own way.’

‘I wouldn’t know…’ Jason muttered.

‘No? Don’t have one of your own?’

‘Can’t say I want any.’

‘Clever boy, Grace. Clever boy. They aint much to talk to, are they? Brain-wise, I mean?’

Jason just shrugged. He really didn’t want to go down this road with Percy. Not yet, anyway.

‘So you’re working Friday night, huh?’

‘Pay’s good,’ Percy shrugged. ‘I’m saving up for college.’

‘Yeah? Where are you going?’

‘Not far. I’m staying in New York, can’t leave mom alone with the kids. Suppose I’ll get a dorm, but I want to be able to help her if she needs it.’

‘Very nice of you. I’m staying too.’

‘Don’t want to leave mommy and daddy?’

‘No, I’m moving into a dorm, but New York offer the program I want to take, so…’ he shrugged. He didn’t want to mention that his father had all but promised him an executive position in his company if he studied here and did an internship at the company. Jason knew it was the easy route to take, but he could always detour later in life if he wanted to.

A girl dressed in the same shirt Percy wore came out from the back and stood next to him. Jason payed Percy what he owed and grabbed his bag. Percy slipped under the desk and walked towards the back room. Jason looked after him.

‘Are you getting off now, Jackson?’

‘Yeah, why?’

‘Can I give you a ride home?’

Percy looked uncertain.

‘It’s not on your way home.’

‘I don’t mind. All I’m gonna do is scroll tumblr and eat doritos anyway,’ he said and held up his bag.

‘I need a couple of minutes to tally up my score.’

‘I’ll wait in the car.’

The girl behind the desk watched them with thinly veiled interest. When Percy returned she called after him:

‘Have fun with your boyfriend!’

‘Go fuck yourself Annabeth!’ was Percy’s eloquent response. She laughed loudly as he disappeared through the door.

Jason was sitting behind the steering wheel when Percy dropped himself in the passenger seat. Percy watched him for a while before he said:

‘Do you need directions?’

‘Uhm… No! Right. We were going somewhere.’

‘Yeah. My house.’

‘Right.’

 

\---------------------------

 

When Jason steered the car around the corner and noticed from the corner of his eye that Percy stiffened in his seat.

‘Fuck no…’ he muttered under his breath.

‘Something wrong?’ Jason asked.

‘You can say that again.’

‘Need help with something?’

‘It’s not your fight, Jason. Thanks for the ride, but I’ll be fine.’

Jason looked at the rundown car standing in the driveway. That had not been there the other time he had been here.

‘Who’s the car?’

‘No one important,’ Percy said. ‘Thanks for the lift, Jason, I really appreciate it, but you should leave.’

‘Dude, if you need help…’

‘I don’t!’

Jason put his hands up in defense and let Percy get out of the car. He didn’t start the engine though, because he was curious as to what would happen. A quick search on his phone confirmed that the car belonged to one Gabe Ugliano. Jason remembered Gabe. He also remembered the state that he had more than once seen Sally in when they were younger. As soon as Percy shut the door behind him there was shouting being heard from within in the house. Jason tried to see what was going on but he couldn’t because the curtains were in the way.

Suddenly the front door was opened again and Percy was all but thrown from within. His long board and his back pack were thrown after him. Percy flipped the front door off before grabbing his things and starting down the road. Jason caught up with him. He slowed down his car so he was keeping the same speed as Percy did on his long board.

‘Want a ride?’

‘I thought I told you to go home, Jason.’

‘Well you barely gave me enough time to start my car before you got yourself thrown out. Come on, where are you going?’

‘How should I know? Away from here.’

‘You don’t know where you’re going?’

‘Well, home isn’t exactly an option now, is it? I really haven’t had much time to think about it, Jay.’

‘Jay?’

Percy shrugged. No one had called him Jay since… well since Percy and him had been friends when they were kids. He realized he had missed it. Jason stopped his car and got out. Percy got off his long board and eyed him suspiciously.

‘Come on, get in the car. You can sleep at my place tonight. We’ll figure something out.’

‘I doubt your parents will have me.’

‘We can stay in the beach house, they won’t notice. Besides, it’s Friday night. That’s date night. They won’t even be home for a few hours.’

‘…alright.’

 

\---------------------------

 

Once they were in the beach house and Jason turned the lights on he flinched. It hadn’t been noticeable in the dark on the street but Percy looked like shit. He had another black eye and a cracked lip. The careful way he moved, Jason suspected that there were also some injuries he couldn’t see. There was blood on his hoodie and on his cut-off jeans.

‘You should take a bath and clean up. There are products in the bathroom. I’ll go up to the house and get some clean clothes for you. Are you hungry?’

Percy shook his head, but Jason decided to bring him some food anyway. No doubt there would be left overs in the fridge. Percy disappeared into the bathroom and soon Jason heard the running of water. He went up to his room and grabbed some spare sweats, a t-shirt, a hoodie and some boxers. No doubt everything would be rather big on Percy but that couldn’t be helped. He knocked on the door to the bathroom.

‘Come in.’

Percy was submerged up to his shoulders. Jason made an effort not to stare at him, but it was hard because Percy had amazing collar bones. Jason had always been a sucker for a nice pair of collarbones.

‘I got you some clothes,’ he said rather unnecessarily as he placed them on the toilet next to the bathroom.

‘Thanks, Jay.’

‘I have some leftover pasta from yesterday too. I’ll heat it up for you once you’re done here.’

Percy closed his eyes and nodded, and Jason took that as his cue to leave.

Once Percy had bathed and eaten (he ate a lot for someone who claimed he wasn’t hungry) Jason handed him a blanket and a beer he stole from his parent’s fridge. As Percy burrowed himself in the blanket Jason opened a beer of his own and took a sip.

‘I bet you wish you’d stayed at that party now, huh?’ Percy mumbled without looking at him. Jason shrugged and took a big interest in his bottle label.

‘I don’t know. There was a reason why I left. That hasn’t changed.’

‘Want to talk about it?’

‘Do you?’

‘I figure I owe you that, at least. But I’m not gonna push. Either you want to talk or you don’t.’

Jason nodded into his lap.

‘There’s this girl…’ he started. ‘I know she likes me, she’s been quite obvious about it for a while now, and there’s been this rumor going around that I liked her too. So, she went to this party kind of expecting us to hook up. When nothing happened she confronted me about it and I said I wasn’t interested. That the whole rumor thing was just that. A rumor. She demanded to know why, said she was pretty enough to get any guy she wanted and I should be grateful.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I kept telling her I wasn’t interested and eventually she left me alone. Her friends wasn’t happy about it, though. Kept whispering and making angry eyes in my direction so I decided to just go home instead.’

Percy sipped his beer.

‘So out of curiosity… why weren’t you interested?’

‘I…’ Jason faltered.

‘Is it the fact that you like boys exclusively?’

Jason’s head snapped up so quickly he was surprised his spine didn’t break in the process. Percy was laughing. How did the idiot have the audacity to laugh at this? Percy must have seen something on Jason’s face because he said:

‘Jason, relax.’

‘How do you…?’

‘You’ve always liked boys. You told me that when we were six.’

‘Yeah, but we were six!’

‘Well… with that in mind it’s kind of hard to miss all the little telltale signs of yours. Like how you’re one of the most popular guys in school but you’ve never had a girlfriend. Or like how I’ve caught you staring at me in the locker room at least a handful of times. A little creepy, by the way.’

Jason blushed.

‘Sorry,’ he mumbled.

‘No worries. I can’t help it that I’m pretty. Besides,’ Percy set his beer down on the table and crept closer to Jason on the couch. Jason found himself trapped between Percy’s body who smelled of Jason’s shower gel and the armrest on the couch. ‘I kind of like it,’ Percy admitted in a husky whisper.

Jason dared to look up and realized Percy was just an inch from his face.

‘Y..you do?’

‘You’re not the only one who likes boys, Grace.’

Jason tried to say something, but he couldn’t find his voice. He didn’t need to. Percy leaned in to kiss him and Jason simply kissed him back. It felt so natural it was scary. He didn’t even mind that Percy threw some tongue into the kiss. That only made the whole thing more exciting. When Percy pulled back, Jason was grinning like an idiot, but that was okay because Percy was too. Jason held out his arms so Percy could crawl into his lap, blanket and everything. They sat like that for a while, just pressed together.

‘Now what?’ Jason asked Percy after a while. The other guy yawned and stood up. He held his hand out for Jason to take.

‘Now, we take this to the bedroom and tomorrow we can worry about the rest of our lives.’

‘Bedroom? I’m not sure if I’m ready for…’

‘For sleeping, Grace. For sleeping.’

Sleeping next to Percy? That was something Jason could do.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think :) 
> 
> Come be my friend on tumblr @makerofaqueen


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